


Do you copy/

by needssleep



Category: The Boyz (Korea Band)
Genre: Aged up characters, Apocalypse, Not A Happy Ending, Nuclear War, Other, all the members in space are above the age of 25, but also gets nice i think, kinda sad, space, timelines a bit weird
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-27
Updated: 2020-12-27
Packaged: 2021-03-10 21:33:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 8
Words: 6,770
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28363971
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/needssleep/pseuds/needssleep
Summary: Floating through space with no communication with Earth was not their plan, but eventually everything happens for a reason and the most unlikely people become your reason to survive.
Kudos: 9





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Heavily inspired by Midnight Sun (the movie) but also differs from the films storyline.

“This is Nymphrite-6 to literally anyone, do you copy.” Jacob said into the microphone, looking straight ahead with no hope. The comms line just crackled in response. He fell back into his chair and rubbed his eyes in frustration. 

“This is space craft Nymphrite-6 to anyone, literally anyone, do you copy.” He repeated, holding back a yell of frustration as yet again the line crackled. 

“Give it up Jake, you’ve been trying all morning.” Younghoon said, watching the older with pity as he leaned against the door to the comms room, Hyunjae stood behind him. 

“And all of yesterday and the day before,” Jacob finished, “don’t you two have jobs to do? Why don’t you do your jobs and I’ll do mine.” 

There was no real bite in his words, any anger he felt was not towards his co-workers, simply displaced onto them. It had been almost three weeks since they had last made contact with NASA, or any space station on earth for that matter and as Spacecraft Operator, Jacob felt responsible for something that completely out of his control. 

“Jacob, come on, Eric made your favourite pancakes. Don’t disappoint the child.” Hyunjae said, trying to coax him away from the communications desk. 

“Hyunjae, please stop referring to Eric as a child, he’s a grown human with a degree in mechanical engineering, not your baby.” Younghoon scolded, amusement apparent on his face. Hyunjae huffed and crossed his arms like a spoilt child. It wouldn’t have been surprising if he stomped his feet. 

“He will be my baby until his own mother reclaims him when we get back on Earth. Until then, shush.”

And with that, Hyunjae turned his heel and stalked away, probably to go annoy Chanhee who was fixing their 3D printer. Taking the opportunity that presented itself, Jacob turned back to the microphone. 

“This is Nymphrite-6 to Mission Control, whichever mission control picks up first, do you copy.”

“Jacob seriously,” Younghoon said as the sound of static filled the comms room, “I’m speaking now not as your friend but as flight commander, stop trying. At least for an hour. Come have something to eat, take a nap and then you can come back. Eric seriously has been making pancakes for the last two hours and the kitchens a mess. Somehow he managed to lower the gravity levels and there’s flour on the ceiling and egg on the cupboards.”

Jacob laughed, sparing the microphone one last glance before complying and following Younghoon to the kitchen not hearing the change from static to a singular voice as the comms line came to life.


	2. Chapter 2

“This bunker number 563 to random space craft that keeps appearing on our airwaves, do you copy?”

“Still nothing?” Sangyeon asked as he pulled up a small crate to sit of the camping table, they had set up in what had been dubbed as the ‘Hawkins AV room’ after the sixth re-watch of Stranger Things. Sunwoo was planning on starting the seventh next week. Haknyeon shook his head, sighing deeply as he accepted a carton of orange juice from Sangyeon. 

“I’m not exactly a radio communications expert, but we did connect for a moment. I heard them but it seems they can’t hear us anymore.” He explained. 

“Well, you don’t have to keep trying.” Sangyeon said, resting a hand on the others shoulder not minding as Haknyeon’s head fell on top of his hand. They sat in relative silence, time passing slowly – although they had no clock or watch to tell if time was passing at all – only disturbing their peace by reaching forward and attempting to reach the space craft again. 

“No luck?” Kevin asked as he stepped into the dimly lit room, huffing as the two shook their heads. “Well better try again later, Juyeon’s made lasagne. Probably won’t taste great, but he’s tried.”

“Anything that comes out of a grey can that is labelled lasagne is not going to taste good Kev.” Haknyeon commented, groaning as he stretched his sore limbs. He’d been sitting on a small plastic chair for the better part of an hour and his body was quite noisily complaining. The three walked into the poorly lit concrete corridors of their bunker, the damp and musty smell hitting their nostrils in heavy waves. 

“Yeah, well don’t complain, Juyeon was stressing about how to make it taste good without using all the food we’ve got left.” Kevin replied making Haknyeon stop and sigh. 

“I’m sorry.” He muttered bitterly making the older two stops, letting Haknyeon push past them grumbling to himself. “I guess my humours a bit hit or miss today.”   
“How long do you think we’ve got?” Sangyeon asked once Haknyeon had disappeared around the corner. 

“A few months at best,” Kevin replied, keeping his eyes trained on where Haknyeon had been in hopes that Sangyeon wouldn’t see the tears dripping down his cheeks.  
“If the radiation doesn’t get us first, then the food will run out. We’ve only got enough for three months of all of us eating one meal a day.”

“But the radiation will probably get us first.” Sangyeon finished, knowing the truth about their dire and hopeless situation.

“Yeah, the radiation will get us first.” A wracked sob left Kevin’s body as he fell to the floor and Sangyeon fell with him wrapping his arms around the younger. “This was not supposed to happen, I was meant to finish my degree and get a job and live a long life. Not die of radiation poisoning or starvation by the age of 22.” He cried. 

“It sucks,” Sangyeon said, rubbing Kevin’s arms, “it really does. All I can think about is my students, what happened to them. I was supposed to be evacuated with them, I was their teacher, but instead their stupid parents wanted them to stay above ground. And by brother, out there in space, does he know what’s happened on Earth? Are they coming back to save us or staying as far away as possible? But we don’t know, and we’ll probably never know. So, there’s no point crying or stressing about it. Let’s just try and live out the rest of our lives as best we can and pray that is enough to make sure whatever comes after is a sweet release from this hell.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! Hope this isn't too depressing (?), it get's worse hehe


	3. Chapter 3

“This is Nymphrite-6 to planet Earth, do you copy?”

Static. A deep sigh. 

“This is Nymphrite-6 to planet Earth, do you copy?”

Static. Jacob sighed again and leaned back into his chair, pushing his hair back from his forehead. And then there was a crackle. 

“Hello? Nymphrite-6? Are you still there?”

Jacob nearly fell out of chair trying to reach the microphone, scaring Eric who had been working quietly next to him. 

“Jake what’s wrong- “Jacob quickly shushed the younger before pressing the on button. 

“This is Nymphrite-6, who am I talking to.” He said, and a crackled laugh echoed through the comms room when he released the button. 

“Holy shit! Your actually there. We’ve been here so long I thought I was hallucinating when we picked up your signal.” 

Eric gasped loudly when the unfamiliar voice crackled through the airwaves, his eyes widening comically. 

“You have no idea how glad I am to hear your voice.” Jacob responded. “Who am I talking to? Is this mission control or a space agency from another country? France? New Zealand?”

A short silence followed, the sound of static once again filled the room and Jacob almost started crying, thinking he’d lost the signal again. 

“Not a space agency I’m afraid.” The voice said. “Do you know what’s happening down here?”

“No, we’ve been unable to communicate with anyone on Earth for almost three weeks, tried everything, Australia, Russia, India. The last transmission we had was with NASA three weeks ago, but we weren’t informed of any issues.” Jacob said, telling Eric with his hands to go find Younghoon and bring him here. 

“Wow, your very out of the loop then.” The voice said. “I’m Haknyeon by the way.”

“Spacecraft Communications Officer Lieutenant Jacob Bae.”

“Now I feel silly, that’s way fancier than just Haknyeon. I was Head Boy at my school should I introduce myself as that?”

“How did you reach us Haknyeon?” Jacob asked a grin etched on his face at the others humour, it had been too long since he’d heard someone who wasn’t a crew member crack a joke and the new voice and humour was a breath of fresh air.

“I’m not sure. I was just mucking around with our comms device, trying to see if I could connect with anyone, and your voice popped up. Scared the shit out of me by the way. By the time I stopped having a heart attack and tried to respond, you were gone. That was two days ago.”

By now Younghoon had walked into the room, an excited Eric pulling him in by the hand. Hyunjae and Chanhee followed, waiting in the doorway looking very confused. 

“Jacob what’s going on? Eric didn’t properly explain just dragged me here.” Jacob shushed the commander with the flick of his wrist and leaned back into the microphone.

“Is this your first time trying again since then Haknyeon?” He asked and almost burst into laughter when Younghoon stood from the chair he had been forced into, clutching his head with hands, shocked by the clear indication that they had indeed made contact with someone. 

There was a moment of static, the airwaves crackling making the tension in the comms room increase tenfold. 

“Yup.” Was the short reply that caused the entire crew to burst into cheers of excitement. “I wanted to try again yesterday but we had something short of an emergency to deal with, so Kevin told me to leave it until today.”

“We? There’s more than just you.”

“Yeah, there’s six of us. Sangyeon’s the oldest – he’s 24 and then Sunwoo’s the youngest, he’s 20. I’m 21 by the way. Then Changmin, Juyeon and Kevin – their all 22. Sucks that there’s no girls, we can’t repopulate.”

“Your all quite young.” Jacob said, choosing to ignore the last comment Haknyeon made. “How did you get hold of a comms machine powerful enough to reach us?”

“It was just in the bunker, and there isn’t exactly much for a sociology and communications major to do in an underground bunker, so I decided to play around with it.”

“Underground bunker? Why the hell are they in a bunker?” Chanhee asked. 

“Has he mentioned anything about why we might not be able to reach any main space agencies.” Younghoon said and Jacob shook his head. 

“Just mentioned that we’re ‘out of the loop’, asked if we knew what was going on down there.”

“Well find out then.” Hyunjae said taking a seat in his own chair at the comms desk. 

“Haknyeon,” Jacob said, “do you have any idea why we can’t reach any space agencies on Earth.” 

Static. 

“Do you seriously not know?” Haknyeon’s voice crackled to life, his disbelieving tone apparent through the air waves. 

“As I said, we haven’t had communication with Earth for almost three weeks and NASA didn’t let anything on during our last transmission.”

“Yeon they don’t know anything.” It was clear Haknyeon wasn’t talking to them anymore, but his voice still echoed around the room. And then the line went silent.

“Hello?” Jacob called into the microphone desperately. “Haknyeon you still there?”

Further silence. 

“He’s gone.”

A unanimous sigh of annoyance and defeat was released from the crew as they left to return to their original jobs, the excitement of being in contact with Earth fading quickly. Jacob let his head fall back in frustration. As great as it was that he had contacted Earth, he’d been left with more questions than answers, and the overall curiosity of why this Haknyeon person had been the first they’d contacted, not NASA or any other major space agency.


	4. Chapter 4

“This is Bunker 563 to Nymphrite-6. How are you Jake?”

A month into communicating and Haknyeon had found himself at ease with the older spaceman. 

“Nymphrite-6 to Bunker 563, I’m pretty good actually. Eric made pancakes again this morning and Chanhee accidentally turned off the gravity in the kitchen, again, so spent a good two-hour cleaning orange juice off the ceiling. You’d be surprised how quickly it sticks.”

Haknyeon laughed as Jacob’s response and leaned back into the microphone. 

“Isn’t this the third time this month? I think you might need to put a large sticky note over whatever button turns the gravity off.”

“We tried that two months ago, didn’t work. Sadly, I’m on a space craft with four incredibly nerdy and intelligent toddlers with little to no common sense.”

“Clearly all their brain power is being wasted on numbers and equations and whatever spacey things you do up there.”

A crackled laugh came through the microphone as Jacob snorted at Haknyeon comment. The line went quiet for a moment before coming back to life again. 

“Haknyeon,” Jacob said, “can you tell me what’s going on down there? It’s been a month and you’ve revealed little more than the fact that something happened and you’re in a bunker. We’re around four days from Earth and need to know if there is a re-entry point anywhere.”

“Is he asking again?”

Changmin walked into the room holding two steaming mugs and what Haknyeon could only assume to be tea. They’d run out of coffee two weeks ago and had to boil all of their water before drinking it as radiation levels on the ground above them were slowly increasing. It wouldn’t be long before anything they ate or drank was riddled with radiation. 

“Yeah, he’s pretty persistent. They still want to come home, no matter how much I’ve hinted that they shouldn’t. Apparently Hyunjae’s had a brother down here and Younghoon had a kid. I can’t just say their dead, can I?”

“You have to tell them.” Changmin reasoned, taking a sip from his tea and grimacing slightly from the taste. “If you don’t their lives will be on your hands. They could turn around and go back to whatever experimental planet they came from, start afresh.”

“Hak you there?” Jacob’s voice crackled through the speaker, confused as to why he had stopped speaking. 

“Yeah, I’m here, Changmin just came in with tea.” 

“Oh, hi Changmin!”

“Hi Jacob.” Changmin sighed. “Just do it Hak.” He said to Haknyeon before leaving the room and disappearing into the dark. 

“Do what Hak?”

“Tell you about Earth.”

“Oh, thank God, finally. It’s not like it taken an entire month to get you to tell me. We were starting to think you guys were some cult that stayed in a bunker or something.”

Haknyeon laughed sadly and took a sip from his tea. 

“If only this was voluntary.” He said bitterly. “Earths fucked Jake. There’s no one left. Everyone except us is dead.”

Jacob didn’t respond. Instead, the line crackled eerily, and then the line disconnected. But not before a chocked sob was heard over the airwaves.


	5. Chapter 5

“Nymphrite-6 to Bunker 563, this Flight Commander Kim Younghoon.”

After Jacob had rushed out of the comms room and into his own pod, crying and refusing to tell anyone anything, of course they panicked. Eric had been knocking on the eldest door for at least twenty minutes as Hyunjae attempted to whisk up another batch of pancakes. Chanhee was stood behind Younghoon, biting his thumb nail nervously as the commander attempted to recontact the people on Earth. Despite being connected for a month, Younghoon had never actually spoken to the bunker people, only Jacob and Eric had had that pleasure. So far, they had been introduced to a total of three people; Haknyeon, Changmin and Sangyeon, the rest had only been mentioned in anecdotes. 

Younghoon sighed when the line just crackled instead of coming to life with the scratchy voice of someone on their planet. 

“This is Nymphrite-6 to Bunker 563, Flight Commander Kim Younghoon to anyone in the bunker. Please respond, you’ve made my Spacecraft Communicator cry and the rest of my crew antsy, I’d like an answer please.”

“Hi, yes we’re here.” A new voice, one they’d never heard before, filled the room. Younghoon looked at Chanhee with a raised eyebrow but the other simply shrugged and returned to anxiously biting his nail. 

“Hello, whoever this is could you please explain why my Spacecraft Communicator is in tears?”

“Ah yes. Sangyeon mentioned Haknyeon told him.” The person said. “I’m Kevin by the way. Kevin Moon. I’m not great with words so I’ll just say this a bluntly as possible. Two months ago – I think – a Russian entity of some sort hacked in the United States defence program and set off their nuclear weapons. In retaliation, Russia, China, Pakistan, the United Kingdom and France set off their own nuclear weapons, leading to mass nuclear destruction on a vast scale.”

Kevin paused and a heavy breath in crossed the airwaves. The next words Kevin spoke were chocked and forced, clearly due to the other holding back his tears. 

“We’re pretty certain we’re the last people left alive on Earth. Everyone wanted to stay above ground with their families to die, even though it was recommended we evacuate. My parents wanted me to go back to Canada, but I chose to go underground in hopes that it was all a joke, or it wouldn’t actually happen but-but it did. And now their dead. So is my sister, and my nephews. Everyone.”

Kevin began to cry and Younghoon felt a tear of his own slip from his eye as he sat and listened to this stranger sob. By now Hyunjae and Eric had entered the room, Jacob with them sitting on the metal stairs holding his head in his hands. They all stood in complete silence; the only noise was Kevin’s continuous cries. 

“Sorry about Kevin.” Another voice they recognised as Changmin covered the cries. “We haven’t really talked about it all properly so it’s still quite fresh. I can tell you what we know from a more composed and scientific point of view unless you have any questions.”

“Hi Changmin, are you sure everyone’s gone. Absolutely everyone?” Younghoon asked. 

“As far as we know, yes. I only know so much, my degree in dance and film did not prepare me for this in the slightest, but Haknyeon was unable to connect to anyone on planet earth. We were given a device to detect radiation and it shows the currently the radiation covers every inch of the planet. It has slowly been closing in on us. Sangyeon and Juyeon reckon if we don’t starve first, we’ll all have radiation poisoning of some sort by next week, which should kill us in a month or two. Our water supply is ruined, same with all the food that isn’t in cans.”

“Is there a little girl with you? About six, her names Injae, is she with you?” Younghoon asked, feeling his tears fall thicker and faster. 

“Younghoon,” Chanhee said placing a gentle hand on his shoulder. “She won’t be there. Their all gone.”

“There’s only us six. I’m really sorry for your loss. All of you.” Changmin apologised. “Your lucky though, you can get away. Go back to whatever planet you came from and try again. Not just for yourselves but for every single innocent life that was wasted because of stupid pride and petty rivalry.”

Noticing Younghoon was unable to answer, Chanhee guided the commander from Jacob’s chair and sat down leaning into the microphone. 

“We’ll run out of fuel before we can get back to IL-9. It’s a two-month flight and we can survive in terms of food, but we’ll barely make it past Mars let alone to Jupiter.”

“How far from Earth are you?” A new voice entered their soundwaves. “My names Sunwoo, I was studying astrophysics before it all went down, maybe I can suggest a way to get you back.”

“Wait, wait,” Eric interrupted, “we’re going home. That’s what we agreed, we’re going home.”

“Depending on how far you are, there should be some way you can use gravity to change your direction back towards the planet you came from,” Sunwoo continued unaware of Eric’s interruption. 

“Are we seriously going to listen to some kid who probably didn’t even finish his degree?” Eric said, voice full of exasperation. Sunwoo obviously heard that comment because a huff of indignation crackled through the comm speakers. 

“Hey how do you know how old I am? I’m 20 for your information, not some kid.”

“Yeah, and I’m 27, so to me you are a kid.” Eric retaliated, before redirecting his attention to his crew mates. “Seriously, we’re going home.”

“You’ll have to excuse us; we need to talk things through up here. We’ll get back in touch soon.” Chanhee said quickly before disconnecting the line. He whipped around to face the youngest who was staring at him conflicted with tear-stained cheeks. “Eric, did you not hear Changmin? There’s nothing to go back to. By the sounds of it there will nowhere to land, no re-entry point that hasn’t been turned into a nuclear wasteland. How do you expect to get home?”

“But we promised. I promised. I’ve been on this mission for two years, we did our job, established that IL-9 is habitable, that it can support life, now we need to complete that mission and go home. To report our findings and go home.”

“Eric, Chanhee’s right. There is nothing to go back to. What’s the point?” Younghoon said, having pulled himself together. 

“You can’t just give up. What about Injae, your daughter? What about my parents, all of our parents who we promised we’d see again? I have a boyfriend waiting for me at home, I will not let him down because some nutjobs in a bunker say the world has ended.” Eric was shouting now, gesturing wildly with his arms. 

“Ok I think you need to calm down.” Hyunjae said, trying to grab Eric’s shoulder. 

“No, I won’t calm down until you all realise that this is crazy! They could be lying, Earth can’t just be destroyed, there’s no way NASA wouldn’t have let us know of political tensions. It has to be made up.”

“Eric, I know your hurting right now, but we all are ok!” Hyunjae yelled, riled up by Eric’s anger. “What about my brother? You had a boyfriend, Younghoon had his daughter, Jacob had his husband, Chanhee had his mother, I had my brother, we all have people we wish to go home to, so it’s not just you. Stop yelling and let’s think this through properly.”

“Guys,” the shouting was interrupted by Jacobs soft voice, “we’ve just come into view of Earth.”

The oldest was stood in front of the viewing screen, and the rest of the crew slowly gathered around him, seeing Earth for the first time in two years. The planet they had left behind, their home, had been beautiful blue oceans and rolling green plains, with splatters of golden desert and glossy white snow, with swirling’s of dangerous but graceful clouds covering parts of the land. 

The Earth before them was yellow and brown. The once graceful clouds were dark and menacing covering most of the land. What land did peak through the ugly covering of cloud was barren shades of brown and grey, not a bit of green or golden to be seen. 

“Is that enough to convince you Eric?” Chanhee whispered, before returning to biting his nails.


	6. Chapter 6

“Bunker 563 to Nymphrite-6, this Juyeon.”

“Hello Juyeon, its nice to finally hear from you.”

Juyeon let a small, shy smile grow on his face as the familiar voice of Jacob rang through the tiny speakers, they had connected to the comms device. He’d never actually spoken into the microphone, never spoken directly to any of the people onboard Nymphrite-6, but he’d always been listening from a distance, every sound seemed to echo around the small bunker. 

“Haknyeon didn’t feel like talking, Sangyeon is helping Kevin and Changmin couldn’t get out of bed this morning. Sunwoo’s still asleep.” He explained, trying not to sound too worried. They were on the last of their food supplies and two days ago Kevin’s hair had started falling out. Sangyeon was helping his shave what was left off. They didn’t talk about the hair that lined Changmin’s pillow as he tried to sit up in bed, eventually giving up and falling back down. They also didn’t talk about how Haknyeon didn’t want to talk because he had been throwing up every few minutes for the last two days, unable to keep any of his food down. Juyeon and Sangyeon seemed to be fairing the best out of everyone, but they weren’t sure how long that would last. 

“It’s getting pretty bad down there isn’t it.” Jacob said and Juyeon nodded, muttering a quick yes when he remembered Jacob couldn’t actually see him. 

“Why don’t you tell me about yourself Juyeon? I know a lot about Changmin and Haknyeon, and Sangyeon, a bit about Sunwoo and Kevin but they mainly talk to Chanhee and Younghoon. What was your life like before all this madness?”

“Pretty boring really.” Juyeon said. “I was trying to get by Bachelor of Science in Psychology, my dream was to be a child therapist. I didn’t have the best childhood, my mum left when I was a baby and my dad neglected me a lot, so I didn’t speak until I was sixteen. I wanted to help young kids who were like me, but I guess there aren’t any kids like me left to help.”

“That’s amazing Juyeon.” Jacob said, not mentioning the last sentence and trying to ignore the fit of painful coughs Juyeon had broken into as soon as he stopped talking. “I used to want to do psychology but then I chose Geology. Did my whole degree through the military. I was 24 when I did my first mission, it was to Mars to finish the agricultural project there. I met my husband there, on Mars. He was a member of a separate crew, one of the French astronauts. Sounds pretty crazy but we got married up there. One of the Brazilian astronauts had trained as a priest so agreed to marry us.”

“That sounds magical. I wish I chose Geology; I could have gotten married on Jupiter or something.” Juyeon commented, laughing at his own joke as he wiped away the blood that lingered at the corner of his mouth, holding back the sobs he wanted to so desperately release when he realised maybe he wasn’t doing quite as well as he thought. 

“Yeah well, if only it lasted. We came back to Earth at the same time, flew out to IL-9 on the same mission, but he went back a year earlier than me. He was only there to collect water samples and check the oxygen levels, but I was there to help construct habitats for humans and to study the nutritional and mineral value of the soil. Exciting I know, but important.”

“How close are you to IL-9?” Juyeon asked, covering his mouth as he coughed again, small flecks of crimson blood falling onto his hand. 

“About a month and two weeks.” Jacob said. “Thanks to Sunwoo we managed to save some fuel, so there should be plenty in the reserves to get us back. Plus, we have some extra for the landing pods that we can try and use, although that might be risky cause we kind of need those to, you know, land back on IL-9.”

“Sounds exciting.”

“It really is.”

Juyeon suddenly felt a wave of exhaustion fall over him and his eyelids began to droop. He let his head drop onto his arms, but he fought sleep off, wanting to stay awake and talk to Jacob.

“Juyeon? You still there?”

Juyeon managed to press the on button and moan a quick yes. 

“You tired?” Jacob asked. “Is Sangyeon there? Maybe he can swap with you and you can go sleep.”

Instead of responding, Juyeon just let go on the button and forced himself out of the plastic chair, stumbling through the concrete corridors and into the bathroom where Sangyeon and Kevin where hugging. Kevin head was covered by a grey beanie but he usually brown sideburns where no longer there.

“I’m going to bed.” He said, startling the two apart, but he was too tired to pay close attention to their strangely jumpy reaction. 

“Juyeon,” Kevin said tentatively, “there’s blood on you lip.”

“Oh,” he said dismissively, reaching to wipe the red away. “I didn’t realise. Jacob’s on the airwaves, asked to talk to Sangyeon.”

And with that he trudged away to his room.


	7. Chapter 7

“This is Nymphrite-6 to Bunker 563. Anyone there?” Chanhee tried again. The entire crew of Nymphrite-6 was stood in the comms room, worrying for their Earth friends. It had been four days since their last contact and since then it had been radio silence. Eric was spinning anxiously in his chair and Jacob and Hyunjae were leaning against each other on the metal stairs. Only Younghoon stood, tapping his fingers against his lips. 

“Nymphrite-6 to Bunker 563 this is Chanhee, do you copy?”

“Hi Chanhee.” The tired and worn-out voice of Sangyeon fell out of the comm speakers. “It’s been a while.”

“It certainly has Sangyeon. What’s with the radio silence?” Chanhee asked gently, trying to be as cautious as possible. Since they had first made contact three months ago, there had always been a bunker resident to talk to, everyday the voice of someone (usually Haknyeon, but later Changmin and Sangyeon, and eventually Sunwoo and Kevin, took time to talk the astronauts, Juyeon being the last to make himself known). The four days of not communication indicated something was definitely wrong.

A deep sigh came from Sangyeon’s end and although they had never seen what he looked like, Chanhee imagined a guy in his early twenties running a hand through his hair, with huge eye bags occupying his face and a large mug of tea clutched in his free hand. 

“Things-things haven’t been great the last few days.” Sangyeon said. “Sunwoo mentioned that Changmin, Haknyeon and Juyeon weren’t well right?”

“Yes, he said something like that.”

The last time they had talked Sunwoo spoke of Haknyeon’s consistent vomiting and Juyeon’s endless coughing. Mentioned that Changmin had been physically unable to leave his bed for almost an entire week. 

“Changmin died four days ago.”

A pause of static sound, showing the microphone on Earth was still on.

“Haknyeon died two days later and Juyeon followed yesterday.”

A stuttered breath left Chanhee and the quiet slap of a palm hitting a face cut through the static. Cheeky and sarcastic Changmin, sweet and shy Juyeon and Haknyeon, the one who started it all, were gone. Dead. So suddenly. 

“I-I’m pretty sure Kevin’s not got long left.” Sangyeon managed through quiet sobs. “And Sunwoo won’t tell me about it but he’s so thin. I mean I’m not much better, but he’s so thin. We’ve eaten what we can, but I know he’s throwing it all up again. My hair started falling out yesterday, just before Juyeon died. I don’t know what to do.”

“Oh god.” Hyunjae whispered. “They were just kids. All three of them. Just kids.”

No one else spoke too shocked to even comprehend what Sangyeon had just said. 

“Thank you.” Sangyeon suddenly said, scaring the crew a little. “Thank you so much all of you.”

“Why are you thanking us Sangyeon?”

“Because without you, without Jacob trying to reach out to someone, I’m not sure what we would have done with ourselves. We’ve lost absolutely everything, none of us had any real hope of surviving but you guys gave us something to look forward to. Something to base a schedule around when there was nothing to do. None of us truly believe Haknyeon when he said that he’d picked up a spacecraft on the air waves, but you were there. And I hope that whatever planet or moon your going to is worth it, because you five are our last hope. There’s nothing else I or anyone on Earth can do to save humanity but hopefully you’ll do the right thing. Thank you for saving our sanity and- “

The line went dead. 

“What happened?” Younghoon asked. “Bring him back.”

“I’m trying.” Chanhee said, frantically pressing buttons and trying to reconnect. “Why isn’t is working?”

“No, you have to bring him back.”

“Why’d it disconnect?”

“Chanhee make it work.”

“Nymphrite-6 to Bunker 563, Sangyeon are you still there? Can you hear us? Kevin, Sunwoo? You there?”

“We’re too far away.” Jacob said sadly, halting the chaos. “We’ve just passed the same spot where we first connected. We won’t be able to reach them now.”

“No, we have to.” Eric demanded. “There’s no way we can just leave them like that Jake. Sangyeon needs us. Kevin and Sunwoo need us.”

“Chan keep trying.” Hyunjae ordered but instead of rushing to retry the connection Chanhee just burst into tears and they knew it was futile. They’d passed the point of connection, there was no way the small comms device Sangyeon was using would reach this far. What felt like hours passed as the astronauts came to terms with their new situation. Haknyeon, Changmin and Juyeon were dead, Kevin, Sangyeon and Sunwoo beyond reach. 

“What do we do now?” Eric asked rubbing his face with one hand. No one replied. 

“We do what Sangyeon and the rest would have wanted.” Younghoon finally said. “We get to IL-9 and we do a better job at being human. We live and continue the human race for them. For them and the billions who didn’t make it.”

One by one the crew left the comms room, going to busy themselves with anything but thinking about the people they had left behind on Earth, and the six they had never meet but grew attached to over the airwaves travelling through space. Only Jacob remained, walking over to the chair and sitting at the comms desk. Absentmindedly he pressed the on button, filling the room with the crackle of static airwaves. 

“This is Nymphrite-6 to Bunker 563.” He spoke. “If you can still hear this, or even if you can’t, we’ll do better, for you. Thank you for making this new journey worth something and for giving humanity a new purpose.”

He missed the faint crackle as the line reconnected momentarily as he left the comms room and switched off the lights. 

“Bunker 563 to Nymphrite-6, it has been an honour.”


	8. Epilogue: What comes next

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Life seems to have new meaning, and hope is once again within reach.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Because I made myself sad by writing such a depressing ending I wrote this really random epilogue. Enjoy!

“Kevin be careful.” Hyunjae shouted before quickly scooping up the stumbling one-year-old who was happily clutching an ego flower in his grubby hands. Hyunjae smiled fondly at the toddler before throwing him in the air and catching him, earning delighted squeals from Kevin. 

“Hyunjae be careful with the child, we don’t need another broken bone.” Younghoon scolded, referring to their most active nine-year-old Changmin who was currently sulking on the patio, right arm held in place by white plaster, trying his best to remain grumpy as four-year-old Haknyeon braided ego flowers into his dark black hair. 

Upon arriving back on IL-9, recently renamed Fremtid (meaning future in Danish, the first IVF mother’s nationality), the crew of Nymphrite-6 had delivered the news of Earths destruction to the four astronauts who remained on the planet. They had naturally been distraught, but after two months of mourning they began planning for the new future. Everything had been set up for them already, by past missions and their own, with prospering allotments and greenhouses and permanent eco-friendly structures already in place, but the real question was, what next. How do they continue humanity with only three women present on the planet?   
The question was answered when Hera-8 landed three months after their return, a Mars mission that had redirected to Fremtid after the demolition of their home planet, bringing two more women and an entire case of embryos that had been frozen and given to the astronauts to use in their tests. Although their purpose changed, two embryos were unfrozen and soon Sangyeon and Frida arrived, the first children to be born on this new planet. The first human children to be born on any planet but Earth. 

Sixteen years and nineteen babies later, the future of humanity didn’t look so bleak anymore, and Fremtid had the population of thirty-three, with two more children on the way. 

“Do you think this is what they would have wanted?” Eric asked, appearing beside Hyunjae holding a squirming Juyeon in one arm, and gripping Sunwoo’s tiny eight-year-old hand in the other. “The guys in bunker 563. Do you think they’d would have wanted this?”

“I think they’d be proud to know that because of them, we got to restart.” Jacob said, taking Juyeon from the youngest. “And I’m pretty sure Kevin would be chuffed that there’s a child named after him.”

The three laughed as Kevin looked up at them with big eyes at the mention of his name. 

“Sangyeon, we’ve talked about this your banned from the kitchen.” The steady voice of Chanhee made them turn around and Hyunjae waved with his free hand at Chanhee who was walking through tall grass towards them Sangyeon following closely behind and arguing his point about something. 

“Are you trying to convince Chan to let you make pancakes again?” Eric asked, ruffling the boy’s hair when he was close enough. Sangyeon cringed away from the touch and frowned at the elders teasing tone. 

“Its not fair, even Kevin’s more trusted in the kitchen than me and he’s one! I only burnt the stove once.” 

“Twice.” Sunwoo corrected, holding three fingers up instead of two. Jacob helpfully put one of his small fingers down so the eight-year-old was displaying the right numbers. 

“Yeah, you nearly set the pan on fire when you made me eggs two weeks ago.” He said innocently, making the eldest boy groan as the watching adults laughed.   
Upon seeing his brothers Changmin immediately perked up and helped Haknyeon down the patio steps as the group approached them. 

“Uncle Eric,” Changmin said, “Imogen said she needed your help to make the birthday cake for Juyeon and Kevin. She can’t get the batter right.”

“Changmin,” Chanhee whined like the true mature adult he was, “that was supposed to be a surprise.”

“Their one,” Changmin deadpanned, “they don’t know what a birthday is yet. They’re not even paying attention to this conversation.”

True to his word, Kevin and Juyeon were indeed not paying attention to the conversation, where words they didn’t understand yet were being exchanged. Instead Juyeon was babbling to Jacob in his own baby language as Kevin sucked on his fingers, which Hyunjae quickly pulled out of his mouth because they were still covered in mud and no one had determined if the mud was poisonous (because none of the children had straight up eaten it but at this point Hyunjae would not put it past Kevin to be the first). 

“That’s not the point.” Hyunjae said, wiping baby saliva on his trousers. “If you don’t learn to keep secrets now, one day when they do know what a birthday is, you’ll ruthlessly ruin the surprise for them.”

Changmin opened his mouth to respond but was silence by the unanimous look of disapproval from the five adults. Laughing at his pout, the group made their way into the main building, chatting idly and blatantly ignoring Sangyeon’s pointless arguments of why he should be allowed into the kitchen again. Only Jacob stayed back, having given Juyeon back to Eric, and stared up at the hazy orange sky of Fremtid. 

“Uncle Jacob,” Haknyeon’s small voice paired with the slight tug of his trouser leg caught Jacob’s attention, “what happened to the people on the other planet?”

“You mean what happened to the people on Earth?” He asked and upon receiving a nod he sighed, bending down to the four-year-olds height. “That my little friend is a long and sad story, but a story filled with great people as well. Do you remember Uncle Younghoon telling you about the man you were named after?” Another small nod. “Well, he’s part of that story too. But maybe todays not the today to tell you.”

Jacob stood to his full height and reached out a hand for Haknyeon to take and together they walked inside the main building. 

“Nymphrite-6 to Bunker 563; we did it. We did it for you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you for reading this incredibly random, and sad, story. I hope you enjoyed it!

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading!


End file.
